Bleach- Dark Days
by Undying Soul98
Summary: 18 years have passed since Kurosaki Ichigo's tale ended. A new substitute shinigami has been created, and now Masaru Fukui must venture into a much darker soul society. These are the darkest days.


Chapter 1- Thug and the Rose

**AN- This is my first story, please give it a chance. It is set 18 years after the full-bringer arc. 1000 blood year war never happened.**

Akemi Kita stood on the roof of a large office complex. She stared at the city of Karakura Town in the dwindling light of the summer sun. She checked her Denreishinki, conveniently shaped like a cell phone, for the time. It read 8:17.

"Night is coming" Thought Akemi as light rain started to run down her face and dampen her crimson hair. She pushed a wet lock out her face and prepared to shunpo to the destination which her "phone" would inevitably pinpoint as the location of a Hollow. Despite easily being a 6th seat fighter she still shuddered in anticipation for her first solo Hollow fight.

Akemi remembered fondly how she often used to to partner up with Kenta kun when he had to do border patrol back at the Tada no hankotekina yosai **(Rebellious Fortress Of The Just) **or the Fort for short. She had managed to help him take out a few of the monsters when they showed up.

Kenta probably could have taken them out on his own but she still liked to tag along. It was better than being stuck doing zanjutsu training alone in her families dojo.

Akemi had never really gone out much. People would say it is because she is a solitary person, preferring her own company to the presence of other people. This is wrong. Her status as a noble just made people think she was aloof. In actuality, she was simply not allowed to leave her families compound. Kept sheltered and hidden from the dangers of the shinigami world, she spent her time longing for the few times she got to leave her sheltered life. "A flower wilting in the darkness" she often thought of herself.

In fact this was the first time she had ever visited the human world, and was only allowed after months of pestering her brother, the clan head, to let her go.

She had spent her first few hours in this new, exciting world looking at the busy high street and marvelling at the exotic (to her) goods on display in store windows. It was only when many of the shops began shutting at 8 that she decided to find the nearest, highest building to get a good vantage point for when the first Hollow would show itself.

Her phone finally bleeped at 8:20.

"Time to get to work" thought Akemi as she leaped off the building and prepared to combat the four hollows appearing in the subway tunnels underground the blissfully unaware Karakura Town.

XXXXXXXXXXX

Some people are less than"blissfully unaware". Masaru Fukui is one of these persons. Masaru was standing in the drenching rain with his hood pulled up over his long, dark brown hair, cut raggedly but stylishly to only just cover his eyes. Masaru wore his usual attire of dark blue jeans with a white shirt and a midnight black hoodie. He had his trademark headphones on and his iphone blasting out music as usual, to block out the noise and annoyance which permanently seemed to surround his life. Often described as tall, but not gigantic, lean, but not skinny and strong but not overpowered. What his hoodie did not show as that underneath he had constantly tense muscles and instincts sharpened to a point from regular street brawls. Much to his annoyance he had accumulated a name on the street as the toughest street fighter to have ever existed in Karakura Town except for the legendary Kurosaki Ichigo. Many people who had fought him often complained that he probably could have beaten Ichigo if they had been born in the same era. Now the legendary "Reaper" Ichigo is nothing more than a myth to scare the new recruits of the Red Diamonds.

That Friday night started like most others. Him standing in the pouring rain, on the street corner of Raiden Road protecting his gang leaders _supposed_ turf. Normally he would stand there sulking while listening to old Abba or David Bowie songs till about 8. It was now 8:19 and the moon was finally up. Something was definitely different about tonight. He didn't know _what_ felt different, just that something did, that something strange would happen soon. Masaru sighed and stuck Ashes to Ashes on his iphone. "Screw Thee Boss" he thought. "He knows my Mum gets pissed when I get back late. Or at least more pissed than normal". Just when he was about to give up and go home, his phone beeped, the sound of David Bowie stopping.

He dug his phone out of his pocket and noticed it was a text message from his best friend since elementary school, Daichi Machida. It said:

"Heey Masaru, got word from Needle! Full on gang fight in the old abandoned subway tunnel. We may be on separate sides, just giving you a heads up. C U there!"

Masaru sighed again. "just like Daichi to send me a text when he knows I'm in a different gang." Daichi was in the Blue spades, a gang of all teens having a laugh and pretending to be hard. They all wore a patch on a jacket shaped, like a blue spade. "Not the digging kind" had said Daichi in his overly excited, high pitched, almost whiny like voice "Like on a card. The 4 of spades or the jack of spades, or something?" When Masaru saw the patch Daichi had to wear he burst out laughing and blurted out,

"Its been sewn on in pink thread! Are you sure your leader ain't gay!"

Daichi turned bright red after that and protested to a still laughing Masaru "Heey it ain't my fault! The guy who did it ran out of blue thread!"

To this day Masaru still thought that the leader of the Blue Spaded was as straight as a flippin' round about. "good times" thought Masaru as he stuffed his phone back into his pocket.

Almost immediately, his phone began ringing. The Sound of Tetris rung through his headphones annoyingly loudly. He sighed saying "How annoying", removing his headphones and answering the phone as he put it to his ear.

"HELLLOOO MMMAAASSAAARRRUU! THIS IISSS THE BBOSSSS MAN! DAA FAMILY IS ON DAA MOVEE!"

"_Crap"_ thought Masaru as his eardrums nearly popped from the extremely loud and long syllables, coming from his self proclaimed bosses mouth.

"I know"

"YYOOUUU DDOOO?"

"WHHHY ELL.. I mean why else would you being ringing me this bloody late. You usually send your annoying messages quicker by now!"

"SSOOO HHAARRSH!" Masaru could practically see the annoying moustached rimmed face of the leader of the Red Diamonds.

"DAANNI, WWWHHHYYY DON' MAA BOOY LLOOVEE MMEE!"

A voice from the other end of the phone replied "Boss he ain't your son, hell he practically 'ates you!"

"BUUT AALLL MA GGAANNG BE MA FAAMMILEE! WHHY DONT MA FAVORITE SON LOVE HIS GAAAAADFATTHAAR! WHAHA HA HA HA" he shouted as he began to so.

"Boss, what did we tell you about your indoor voice?"

"THIS IS MY INDOOR VOICE!" He then continued to sob. Masaru could hear the sound of the phone being passed on.

"Hey Masaru, this is Danny." Danny was the more sane leader of the Red Diamonds, although he was only technically the** 2**nd in command he did all the day to day stuff.

"Yeah I hear you Danny."

"Basically were having a large fight with out rivals the Blue Spades to keep the boss happy. Just try to show up at the abandoned subway tunnel. See you there"

"yeah, see you." he hung up, glad that there was finally some action.

If Masaru didn't fight for too long he got impatient. If Masaru got impatient he had to stop listening to his music, and when this happened he had to pay attention to the strange and annoying reality that was his life, the reality no one else saw. He turned off his phone so the music suddenly stopped. He quickly started walking away from that street corner he had been standing on for the last 3 hours... and from the translucent, spectral middle aged man that Masaru had been trying to ignore. But then again ignoring these things was pretty normal for Masaru.

XXXXXXXXXXX

the last rays of the summer sun had finally set by the time Masaru reached the previously mentioned destination. The Karakura Subway was a somewhat recent addition to Karakura towns quickly increasing industry. 12 years ago when Mizuiro Kojima was elected vice president of Japan one of the first things he decided to focus on was increasing the industry in Karakura Town. Under his watchful gaze Karakura Town quickly became a centre of growth in Japan. Single houses and rural bungalows were quickly replaced with blocks of flats and office areas. Karakura central became a hotspot of activity with new skyscrapers cutting through the air, shops and businesses moving and expanding in this urban paradise as well as several other key modern buildings created, like the Karakura Accounting building, the shopping centre and of course, the subway. Karakura looked a lot different to how it did 20 years ago.

The subway itself flourished for 8 years, bringing in tourists and workers from other cities. Its success was short lived. A series of grisly bodies discovered in the tunnels ensured that the project was not continued. Only 2 of the original train lines are still in use. They never caught the killer.

The voice in the back of Masaru's head was urgently yelling at him to turn back. To go home. To not bother going to this fight tonight. He never considered himself superstitious, even though he constantly saw spirits. He never believed in _bad feelings _so what made him so worried this time about entering the tunnels? He finally decided to go in, not realising that his fate had drastically changed by making this choice. He could have had a much nicer destiny if he had only decided to go home that night.

XXXXXXXXXX

The station inside the tunnels was run down and derelict. Rude graffiti covered the walls, weeds pushed up through the ground, a sour rancid smell hung in the air, like if a rats body was left for a few weeks. A leak had sprung in the cracked ceiling through a broken pipe, leaving a small pool in the corner of the room. He sighed as he jumped down onto the now quiet and empty train track.

"This Brings up bad memories, this place does_._"

There were no lights in this tunnel. No reason for the government to keep the power running. Grimacing for the task ahead, he took his phone out and stuck it on maximum brightness. He walked into the tunnel as dark as the pits of hell themselves.

After much walking and a lot more stumbling he finally reached the light at the end of the tunnel. _Literally!_ Deep in the tunnels there was a small area where trains would pass and stop, long abandoned now. Tunnels from there led all across Karakura. Despite having no power, both gangs had set up multiple torches and crude lamps to light this area and some of the surrounding tunnels. It was private, quiet and the coppers left this place well alone. A perfect place for some small scale thugs to have a laugh in. when Masaru arrived he saw the two parties tensely squaring up against each other, many armed with an odd assortment of weapons. Both parties were as similar as fire and water. The Blue Spades, dressed in tracksuits and hoodies, with their leader Needles (an ego as large as his spiky hair, whom single handedly supplies the hair gel companies with millions each year) in a _definitely not gay_ black jacket with _manly _pink stitching in it.

And the Red Diamonds in their black jeans and dress suits, trying to look like they are making a remake of the flippin' Godfather Films! The leader who calls himself the Boss, stood at the front of his army of proxy Mafia troops. He was short and fat, with a chubby face, no angles appeared in his body. He wore an Italian suit which was either very expensive due to its authenticity, or very cheap due to its tackiness. Masaru also spotted Daichi in the Blue Spades ranks. Daichi was still in his Karakura high uniform. He had his school shoes and trousers on, his school shirt with the top 3 buttons undone, his Karakura High jacket is dangling out of his school bag dangling on his back. He clearly had no time to go home after kendo practice and collect his gang jacket. He wore the same scarf he always wore. A yellow diamond cowboy styled one tied round his neck, which he received off his twin sister Yuna on his 10th birthday because he liked the anime series Cowboy Bebop. His short messy hair was as usual not combed. His face was particularly child like.

When Daichi noticed Masaru arrived he gave his signature wave and yelled "Heey, Masaru!'Bout time you made it!"

The Boss noticed his arrival as well and yelled "MAA BOOOYY! YYAAA MADE ITT! LLETTS KICK THESE GUUUYSS ASSS ANN SHOW DEM OUR PRADDE!" Masaru sweat dropped and tried to forget that this traumatising event had ever happened,as well as remembering some of the more valuable incriminating evidence so that he could blackmail Daichi if necessary.

"_The incident with the cow or the event with the squirrel will do!"_

"MWAAHAHA!" he laughed maniacally. Daichi noticing this, was _unsurprisingly_ worried, especially since he had the feeling the cow or the evil squirrel was somehow involved.

"LET DA FIGHT COMMENCE!" Bellowed the boss. Both parties squared up for what was sure to be a bone braking experience. The Blue Spades prepared to charge when suddenly a colossal roar was heard through the tunnel, a roar which sounded like a million rusty blades scraping against a massive chalkboard.

"GGRROOAARRR!"

Many manly men suddenly dropped their weapons, simultaneously wetting themselves and shouting a chorus of not so manly squeals, they fled through many tunnels.

Masaru had a feeling what his bad feeling was. In the dark tunnel Masaru arrived from the roaring restarted. Daichi yelled "QUICK! Leg it" and they did. The remaining thugs scattered. Masaru also legged it. He ran through one of the wide tunnels previously lit by the thugs. The roaring sound followed. Masaru gasped and stopped. He thought of the constant streams of ghosts, spirits, monsters and black robed men which he could not stop seeing, but also not quite accept. He came to a revelation.

"Bloody hell, could it be after me?"

He had no time to contemplate. He saw a faint figure smash into the wall he just passed, and several small silhouettes outlined through the flickering torches. He kept running. He kept running and running and running. _"This isn't right,"_ he thought _"This is when those men in black come and kill these things."_ he had seen it happen many times. Figures invisible to the normal eye slaying strange masked creatures.

"_to hell with it, I will have to do it myself."_ He took a path looping back, while the creatures were one step behind like a panther stalking its prey. Masaru finally reached the original room. He stopped to catch his breath and to pick up a discarded pipe with tape wrapped round it for a hilt. _"Probably belonged to one of the others"_ he thought. The head beast, the creature which had been chasing him, finally caught up. It stumbled forwards out of the tunnel. Masaru could finally see it and its minions in all their horrific detail. The lead one was 2 metres tall. It had pitch black coloured skin stretched tight over a skeleton vaguely human. The bones were distorted, with sharp spikes and edges jutting out of his spine, ribs and his elbows. Its arms were quite long and large, shaped like a hammer and probably twice as strong as one as well. It had a bleached white mask pulled over its face. The mask had 2 lethal looking horns facing forwards. Its eyes were red but had intelligence buried within its beastly slits. He had 6 minions following him. Each one was small and agile, no larger than a dog. They walked on all four legs and sniffed the air, like they were sniffing a trail.

"That's just what I bloody need, some sniffer things after me".

Holding the pipe tight in his hands, he ran to another tunnel branching off form the first one he chose. Masaru's frenzied struggle seemed to spark the hollows blood lust. He let off another howl and sent his minions to cut the puny human off as he gave chase.

Masaru ran. He turned left, right, right again, lights! He must be in a working tunnel! His grin disappeared. He suddenly had a vision of getting hit by a train. Not nice. But where t...WALL! Pushing off he turned left. "CRAP!"he bellowed in rage. He was at a dead end. Ironic. This would be Masaru's death as well as his own end. The minions arrived. 2 dashed to each side. 2 guarded the behemoth as he trudged down the tunnel slowly. He was in no rush. He could sense that his prey was not going anywhere.

"So this is the end." was all he thought as his death walked closer.

"BUT I SURE AS HELL AM GOING OUT FIGHTING!" he bellowed defiantly and prepared to swing his makeshift weapon. This was when all hell broke loose.

XXXXXXXXXX

A figure suddenly appeared, as if she stepped out of the shadows. The figure dashed quickly past the behemoth and cut through the first minion guarding the leader. It disintegrated instantly. The figure then used her recently drawn blade to slash through the titans hammer arm.

"RRAARRGHH"

The figure leapt out of the way of the other arm and stepped next to Masaru. Masaru could feel himself blushing as he looked at his supposed saviour. She was a young women, looked about 19 years old. She had short Crimson hair cut into locks which tumbled elegantly to her shoulders, as well as bangs to keep her frontal hair out of he eyes. She had all the right curves,was about average height and as Daichi would say "gosh, she has Knockers large to enough to knock out the person next to her when she turns.". She had no jewellery or make up. She did not need it. She wore an average shihakusho with a short sheath strapped to her thigh. The sheath was black with crimson spirals decorating it.

"You there, human" She spoke in a frustrated tone. "Why didn't you run, you could have got yourself killed!"

"I can't exactly run away if they are chuffing following me can I? Where have you been? I was about to try fighting themselves!"

The women quickly did a double take. "Wait, what? You can hear me?"

"Yeah, and I can see you too, well I can at least see you not doing your job!"

The women almost tripped over in surprise.

"How do you know about the job which shinigami do?"

"The who?"

"UUHH!" She sighed in frustration. "Explanations later. I can't kill 6 hollows by myself. Will you try and take on the minions?"

"Do I have a choice?" questioned Masaru as he practised swinging the pipe.

"No" she said holding he katana out in front of her. It was a plain grey katana,with a blood red hilt, engraved with black vines. "I did not think I would have to use this so soon." She swung he sword down and cried "BLOOM! Shinku toge dansa! **(Bloom! Crimson thorn dancer!)**

XXXXXXXXXX

Much to Masaru's surprise, the weapon changed mid swing. She now held a much thicker sword. It was twice the width of the average katana. The handle of the sword was green, with red roses engraved into the hilt. A red thread dangled from the end. The blade itself was very pointed. Jutting along the sharp edges, spikes as thin and sharp as thorns point outwards. The end of the blade is pointed like a broadsword. The colour of the blade gradually changes to green at the end.

"Meet your match hollows!" she yelled. Swinging her blade horizontally she said

"Akai toge no danmaku!" **(Red Thorn Barrage). **The thorns facing away from her shot out quickly like bullets impaling multiple hollows, 1 minion was hit in the mask and taken down. Not to be outdone, Masaru aimed at the distracted minion on the left. The pipe slammed into its face, knocking it into the wall. He rammed it with the sharp end of the pipe. The minion was down but not dead. like liquid mercury the other minion jumped onto Masaru's back and dug in with its small claws.

"AAAH! Get it off!"

His temporary partner yelled "Piasu tsura-dan" **(Piercing vine bullet).** The green end of her sword, rushed forward, the entire size of her blade extending. She sent the edge straight through the mask of the minion on Masaru's back killing it instantly. Now free, Masaru swings the pipe into the downed Minion. Cracking the mask. Three minions down, three left. The large one finished repairing its arm. They started to counter attack. The remaining one guarding the big one dove forward. She yelled "Piasu tsura-dan" killing it with her fatal green blade. The remaining two leaped for her while she was distracted. One tackled her legs while the other one bit her sword arm. She cried out in pain an dropped her sword. The behemoth struck. His fist smashed forward, knocking the woman off her feet. In blind rage Masaru picked up Akai toge no danmaku and swung it with amateur style to cut off the second hand flying forwards. It moaned in agony and retreated slightly, the remaining minions rushing to protect their master. Craftily with a smile, if it had a face, or as if it was planning it all along, 2 tears opened up in air and out stepped 2 more minions from their black depths.

"Help me!" cried the woman.

Masaru did, and pulled her up against the wall to rest. Blood was flowing from her left leg, her right arm and her head. "I..I...I am" she said panting "sorry..I should have made a diversion... so you could.. get away." she said with her eyelids dropping.

"Don't be stupid!" yelled Masaru in desperation. "I would not have cared if you did make a diversion for me! I would have stayed, fought and died with you!"

Tears glistened in the woman's eyes "Really?"

"Yes! I could not just stand there and let someone like you die like that!"

The woman suddenly had a smile on her face, as if she could finally be sure of something.

"Do you want to live?"

"Don't we all?"

"We can still get out of this alive!"

"if you say so" he said sarcastically.

"give me the sword"

"I don't think that's a goo"

"Give it!"

Masaru did. It had gone back to its first form.

"My sensei Sayuri taicho, was once in a situation like this. She transferred her powers to a human so he could finish of a hollow"

Masaru gasped "you don't mean,"

"That's right. After what you said I am sure I can trust you with this power." She sat up and held the sword out in front of herself with shaky arms."You must thrust into this sword!"

"Won't that hurt?"

"Just do it!" She shouted.

"Annoying." he muttered as he positioned himself on the edge of the blade.

The woman smiled "My name is Akemi Kita" _"I wish this will make me like Sayuri taicho"_

"The names Masaru Fukui" _"I wish I was Strong!" _he threw himself onto the zanpakuto.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

The tunnel was enveloped in a flash of light green/blue. After a few moments the light cleared. 2 things had changed. Akemi was now in white robes, with a shocked expression on her face _"He took all my power! Will this be a repeat of the Kurosaki Ichigo event? I hope it isn't."_

The 2nd was Masaru. He wore the typical attire of a regular shinigami with a few differences. The sleeves of his shihakusho were shorter, he also had a hood, currently not pulled on. He was also holding a strange zanpakuto. It was a double edged longsword. The blade was slightly curved and was a bit thicker towards the handle. There was no hilt. Simply a foot of metal wrapped in leather strips for grip. The blade was a dark black colour but the edges were dark grey. His sheath was pure black with red hexagons patterned across half of it. It is carried over one shoulder on a fire red strap. He took two practise swings and felt the blade swing through the air like an extension of his own body. _"I feel brilliant. Hell,I could go two rounds with Chuck Norris" _dropping his sheathe to the ground he prepared to fight. 2 minions charged forward, the others circled round. The behemoth charged forward to deal with this new threat. Masaru sidestepped the first minion opening up a shallow wound as he did. He blocked the second with the wide part of his blade. He then swung the blade quickly using both hands for more power at the minion to the right. The longsword decapitated it. The behemoth swung with its hammer fist. Masaru slid under its wide legs allowing the beast to kill the 4th minion with its own attack. Quickly swinging with all his strength he cut through it vertically, removing its left side from behind. "Don't mess with me!" the hollow mask was torn in half. The beast gave a squeal before disappearing. The two injured hollows tried desperately to run away but Akemi picked up the pipe from the floor and rammed it into the first, killing it quickly. Masaru dealt the final blow. A weak downwards thrust, putting the creature out of its agony.

"WE DID IT!" he shouted "I CANT BELIEVE WE WON!" he laughed in relied before falling unconscious due to the tiring battle. The last thing he remembered before falling into a deep sleep was the smiling face of Akemi Kita.

**AN- wooh, finally done. stayed up all night doing this, please enjoy and review!**


End file.
